Claire Gillian

We’re in the final count down to NaNo!

I’m going to tweak my plan slightly. I did hear from the publisher I submitted my superhero novella to. They liked the concept and the plot but felt like the story parts other than the romance needed more development. They invited me to resubmit it after a few more drafts. Sooooo….up on the docket starting 11/1 will be another pass at Prometheus Unstitched. It’s a cute story, dammit, so I want someone to adopt it but I guess a few more charm school and etiquette lessons to remove the hillbilly edges are required first. Fine. I’m nothing if not determined.

Other “stuff” is threatening to overwhelm me in these pre-liftoff days. I have two additional intimacy scenes for my novel done (first’ish draft anyway) and am about halfway through the final one. Editing-wise, I’m in the middle chapters. The BLURB, however–she is DONE!! ::::Claire takes a bow and blows kisses to her publisher::::: Cover and blurb for The P.U.R.E. coming 11/14, I think, or somewhere thereabouts.

I also have to accomplish 41 hours of continuing professional education for my CPA license renewal before 11/30. I started about a week ago. Gulp. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. Good news is, I’m super-human fast at online training courses. I’ve worked my way through 21 hours’ worth in about a week. Twenty to go. Ideally, I would like to finish CPEs by 10/31 and ship off my paperwork and my $240(!!!) fee to the state of Texas shortly thereafter.

Then…my plate will be clear (mostly) for NaNo…except for maybe a couple of beta reads I owe and am scandalously and inexcusably delinquent on.

I hope I’m not exhausted before I even begin.

My goals and current stats for this round are on my ROW80-4 page.

The Linky site lists other participants’ progress reports. Give them some encouragement too.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

: Image via Wikipedia

I love handbags, purses, pockebooks, bags…whatever you want to call them. We have a special affinity, purses and I. Maybe it’s because, like a faithful dog, a purse always sticks by you no matter whether you’re thin or fat, fit or flabby, tall or short. Your purse is always there, always happy to hang by your side or on your arm, thrilled to carry your things.

I have quite a large collection of bags, my favorites being Coach, Dooney & Bourke, Cole Haan, and my latest addition, a cute little copper Tiganello number with matching wallet. I rotate them every few months to match bag to season. I have colors ranging from your basic black, brown, tan and navy to jade green, teal, rouge (no, it’s not red but rouge…there is a difference), parrot green, lilac, purple, white with pastel colors, and olive. Most are leather but a few are cloth or coated cotton, some sporting the logos of their makers, but most not.

Aside from its beauty as a work of art, a purse is, most importantly, a functional part of any self-respecting woman’s wardrobe. Anything important I need to carry goes into my purse–wallet, aspirin, pens, business cards, toiletries–you name it, I probably got it. If I need to remember to take something somewhere, I need only tuck it into my purse. Really, everybody should carry one.

The Silverback included.

He’s always forgetting his wallet or his cell phone or pieces of paper with important phone numbers on them. When we go to movies, I am the one who has to break the movie theatre laws and risk, I don’t know what, but something heinous, if caught smuggling in candy and sodas. Why I’m so worried about some cinema staff one quarter of my age busting me over bottles of water and Diet Coke, is a story for another day. But I get to tote my overstuffed gargantuan handbag into the theatre only to have three sets of male hands (I have two teenaged sons) pawing at it before the lights even dim.

Clearly they see some value in the handbag.

If the Silverback carried one too, he’d never forget his wallet or cellphone. He’d always have his checkbook, would always have extra Tylenol when I ran out. He’d be able to carry his own car keys into sporting events and he’d have a place to stash his hat instead of losing it at a restaurant.

With his superior strength, he could not only pack an entire two liter bottle of soda in his man purse but probably a family sized pizza too.

The dog’s leash and poopy pick up bag would always be handy. He could carry coupons and save us money instead of shrugging and whining, “I had no place to put them.” He could carry a bigger wallet with more compartments in which to organize decades old photos and expired credit cards. He could carry his own pair of tube socks for trying on shoes during sandal weather. All his little spare parts he needs to take to the hardware store to replace? Yep, the man purse would allow him to move to from store to store without flashing everyone his business.

I don’t know why he doesn’t carry one. It makes perfect sense to me. He could buy one in a manly color or even camouflage print if he liked. I wouldn’t care, though I’d rather he nab a nice cordovan colored one in case I ever wanted to borrow it.